Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera, and in particular to an image pickup apparatus that shoots a moving image for a predetermined time period before or after shooting a still image, a control method for the image pickup apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Some image pickup apparatuses such as digital camera shoot a moving image for a predetermined time period before and after shooting a still image.
For example, there has been proposed an image pickup apparatus which starts recording a moving image at first releasing by pressing a release button halfway down, shooting a still image at second releasing by pressing the release button all the way down, and finishes shooting the moving image upon lapse of a predetermined time period after shooting of the still image (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-78137).
The art described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-78137 above has problems described hereafter. They will now be described with reference to FIG. 7. In FIG. 7, T1 designates a time at which a first shooting instruction is issued, and T2 designates a time at which a second shooting instruction is issued. MP1 designates a moving image shooting time period corresponding to a predetermined time period before and after T1, and MP2 designates a moving image shooting time period corresponding to a predetermined time period before and after T2.
As shown in FIG. 7, when both a moving image for a predetermined time period before and after shooting of a first still image (MP1) and a moving image for a predetermined time period before and after shooting of a second still image (MP2) are to be recorded, there is an overlapping time period, and hence the two moving images must be encoded in parallel at the same time.
In order to carry out a plurality of moving image encoding processes in parallel, a plurality of moving image encoders and a large-capacity memory for temporarily recording moving images including those for an overlapping moving image shooting timer period are necessary. This may cause an increase in the size of the image pickup apparatus and an increase in costs.
If a plurality of encoders and a large-capacity memory are not provided with an image pickup apparatus, a plurality of moving image encoding processes cannot be performed in parallel. In this case, it is conceivable that when a moving image encoding process is underway after shooting of a first still image, an instruction to shoot a second still image is not received. In this case, however, the chance of shooting in a predetermined time period after shooting of the first still image is missed.